#1314: Stump the Salesman

Original Air Date: 04.06.2013

This week on Car Talk, LaDell's new career as a car salesman was off to a good start, until he opened his mouth. He bragged to a customer about a car's torque and horsepower, the customer asked LaDell to explain the difference… and he's still waiting for an answer. Elsewhere, Liberty's Nissan is sending a clear message: Give me new ball joints, or I may give you death; Tony's 17-year-old son says the fumes from Dad's Saab are responsible for him dropping AP history and not cleaning his room anymore; and, Liz is wondering whether her trusty old Toyota truck can serve as a two-story home for her sled dogs. And, from our Expository Writing Department, we have a few choice metaphors and similes, including, "He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant, and she was the East River." All this and lots more, this week on Car Talk.

Today's show: 4/13/13

A case for the neutral stop

Re: Andrew's question about staying in 1st with the clutch depressed at a stop, it's a bad idea! Even if modern clutch assemblies are robust enough to take it, there's a completely different perspective: should you get rear-ended or otherwise very startled, your foot will almost certainly fly off the clutch, possibly damaging your drive train, and maybe give you enough forward momentum to crash into what's ahead of you!

Salesman named Cheat'em- gotta wonder

Tom and Ray- Dad of 17 year old should do that simple fix and not his son and see if he still doesn't clean the room. The factthata 17 year old boy did clean the room after 15is amazing.Liked the Volvo question.I used to say at 200,000miles that I was just breaking in my Volvo.Good clutch question- I always rode the clutch when young and my husband said "no more clutches" except when he plays golf. -

Favorite Moment: When Mr La Dell Cheatham didn't realize you were referring to the famous law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe. Uncle Otis named Oles would be cute.

what's in a name?

"Liberty" isn't a very 60's nor California/hippie name, guys. It might be more common in conservative states like Idaho. I knew of a locomotive engineer's wife by that name, grew up rural in CA in the 40's. I knew a rancher's daughter named Charity. these types of names may be associated with Mormons (but so would Joshua, Abe,Eve?)

Favorite Moment: most of this show was rollicking and inspiring banter

San Francisco Volvo Electrical Issue

The lady from San Francisco who had the ancient Volvo with unintentionally automatic rain-detecting wipers, and a slowly dying battery, pretty clearly had water in the electrical box. I'm envisioning 30+ years of salty sea air turning the underside of the fusebox into a turquoise green mass of corrosion. I've seen the combination of water and electricity in a confined space cause ampere-scale leakage, enough to make the battery die within a week. So fix the problem--keep water out of the fusebox!

"She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs," "He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River," and more of our favorite metaphors about love, life and everything else.